Downstairs with Kuroshitsuji
Downstairs with Kuroshitsuji are the extras that occasionally appear at the end of the volumes. They are drawn by Yana Toboso and commonly depict what goes into making Kuroshitsuji. Even though they are numbered as volumes, the number is not necessarily the same number as the volume it appears in due to them not appearing in every volume. Summary Volume 1 Found in Volume 1. She talks about how she came up with the idea of a demon butler and what he would look like. Volume 2 Found in Volume 2. Yana Toboso laments how everyone thinks her surname is "Hitsugi" (coffin), and Mr. K remarks that "Toboso" is such a difficult name to memorise and asks her why she could not pick a better pseudonym. This prompts her to reveal some of the strange names her editor thought of as the series' name before they settled on "Kuroshitsuji": "Butler = Slave," "Reduced to Butlerdom," "A Vile Worm of a Butler," "The Outcast Butler," "The Self-Destructive Butler," and "Lord Butler." Then, Toboso adds that not only Mr. K is a bit "weird," but also her assistants, K, H, and S. For example, Toboso likes to draw clothes which means they always have to apply a lot of screen tones to the pages. While they were making their finishing touches on Chapter 7, Assistant H asked Toboso what screen tone she should apply on the Viscount of Druitt's clothes. However, she said "koshaku" (insolent) instead of "shishaku" (Viscount) which resulted in mockery and a new nickname for Aleistor. Furthermore, she reveals that no one in her team knows anything about 19th century England and they are always poring over history books. During their research, they always learn new things like that the Season is in summer and that, in summer, people put potted plants in the chimney because they never left a room unused. Every time they have to look up something, their pile of books grows, and Toboso even subscribed English magazines. They certainly do a lot of research, but she sometimes wonders where it is even used. Lastly, she speaks about the Drama CD: When she first got the call that there would be a Drama CD, Toboso was quite excited. They worked closely with the publisher "Frontier Works," and she had a say in the selection of the voice actors. When she and Mr. K received the first script for the Drama CD, he suggested that they could add some new scenes and change things. For example, the part where Sebastian pulls away the tablecloth to hide the wine stains could be replaced with him slurping up the wine. This suggestion was, however, vetoed by Toboso. The Drama CD does include some additional scenes though. Her personal favorite is the one in which Sebastian speaks with a pacifier in his mouth—another suggestion from Mr. K. Volume 3 Found in Volume 5. She talks about going to a count's home to take pictures for the "Phantom Night" (a Kuroshitsuji event) and her editor, Editor K, appearing in all of them. She also mentions the announcement for the anime adaptation. Volume 4 Found in Volume 6. She talks about doing all of the character designs for the anime, the announcement of the video game and doing the designs for it. Volume 5 Found in Volume 7. She talks about the amount of work she put into making Baron Kelvin's personality and how people ignored him for Vincent and Diedrich. Volume 6 Found in Volume 13. Two years have passed since the last volume, and she reminisces about everything that happened during this period: the second season of the anime, the two musicals, and the food collaboration with Namco Namjatown, a theme park in Tokyo Ikebukuro. Apart from addressing these things and thanking everyone for continuing to support her, Yana Toboso does not know what else she could say though. Mr. K suggests to answer fan questions like other mangaka do, but she says that she does not get many questions from fans regarding Kuroshitsuji. Instead, she is always asked how she draws male characters so well, and as she does not know it herself, she does not know what to answer. Another question she frequently gets is "How do you become a mangaka?", and Mr. K says that she could just talk about her experiences as a beginner mangaka then. In 2003, Yana Toboso sent in a manuscript for a Square Enix manga competition. Her story was called "Hell-O" and followed two Grim Reaper partners called Koya and Ginji. It won the advancement award and caught the eye of Mr. K who then became her editor. "Hell-O" was scrapped because Mr. K disliked the plot. It, however, inspired the Grim Reaper Dispatch. The military uniforms the Grim Reapers wore in "Hell-O" were changed to suits though. At the beginning of 2004, Yana Toboso sent in another manuscript for the same competition. Her manga "Disguise" followed a lord called Ao—who later evolved into Ciel Phantomhive—and his servant Kohaku. This time, she was ranked second and was offered to do a short guest manga. It was called "9th" and told the story about nine princes fighting for the throne. During that time, Toboso became more aware of her own inexperience, and Mr. K had to make her read various books on how to create mangas. In 2005, she published her short series Rust Blaster, and, in 2006, she started Kuroshitsuji. Initially, Kuroshitsuji was supposed to be a short series as well, but when it proved to be quite popular, Toboso got the opportunity to expand it. Furthermore, she remarks that, although she is a fully-fledged mangaka now, there is a lot she does not know and still has to learn. Special volume Found in Volume 15. Yana Toboso and her team did extensive research on public schools for the Public School Arc, and the special presents the uniforms worn by the students of Weston College in detail. DwK Regular uniform.png|Regular uniform DwK Prefect uniform.png|Uniform for prefects DwK Sportswear and college gowns.png|Sportswear and college gowns Volume 7 Found in Volume 17. She talks about doing research about cricket and about her trip to the Japan Cricket Association to learn more about the sport. During the making of the Public School Arc, Yana Toboso asked her history consultant, Riko Murakami, if there are school festivities at public schools too, and he told her that, at some elite college, there is always a cricket tournament on June 4th. Because she has no idea of cricket, she and Mr. K gathered all they could find on the topic. Even though cricket is a very popular sport, it is largely unknown in Japan. Thus, they were only able to find very little information, and the little they did find, they could not understand because they could not picture anything that was described as they have never seen a cricket game. Mr. K eventually found a cricket course for beginners at a school in Tokyo, and he and Yana Toboso went there to try the sport themselves. The cricket teacher then referred them to the Japan Cricket Association in Sano. There they met the association's chairman, Miyaji, and asked him everything about the rules of cricket and how they could cheat without breaking them. Volume 8 Found in Volume 21. She reveals the nicknames she and her assistants came up with for some of the characters in the series. She mentions that characters are called by nicknames until everyone remembers their real names. pl:Pod schodami Kuroshitsuji Category:Out-of-Universe Category:Volumes